Speech #1010049971

I am not an expert on Southeast Asian affairs. I am obviously not a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. But I have been deeply involved in U.S. refugee policy for several years. It has become increasingly clear to me that we must start taking refugee flows into consideration as we make foreign policy decisions. I know that is not a popular stance. I get hammered flat occasionally. and keep coming back. And I will because someone has to recognize that when you make these kinds of decisions there will be refugees. We have found that our military assistance and military involvement in the affairs of another country can result in some very serious obligations on the part of the United States to receive and resettle refugees from that particular country if our policy goes awry. It went awry in Vietnam. and we resettled almost 800.000 people from that country. Not only do domestic groups at home proclaim our responsibility. our duty. our obligation regarding the refugee flow. but there are some very strong groups in the United States who also do that. Sometimes they speak out of the national interest and sometimes they speak out of their own selfish interests. That is some of the voluntary agencies. They do beautiful work. but they cannot exist without a refugee flow. That is why we continually put together a lid on refugees. Then we continue to skew it. and it is skewed for the purposes of assuring that flow stays high. I Just know the American public does not have any idea that on resettlement our Government pays $535 per person to resettle a refugee. So oftentimes it does not even get to those people. It goes to administration. It goes around. It sometimes gets banked. They will take a person to a relative in the United States and leave them there and say. "We will be back to check on you in a year." That is why the dependency rate on refugee resettlement in one State of the Union is about 73 percent. If you want to keep doing that. that is fine. But we ought to know what it is we are doing. Other nations have come to assume that the United Statesand really aloneshould and would accept the major responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance and resettlement opportunities to refugees from those countries in which we were militarily involved. I do not disagree with that. We certainly assume certain obligations toward groups whom we support and encourage. and particularly toward those whom we provide arms.